Broken Bride
by Deadalive15
Summary: After Amber's death Wilson attempts to change the past. Warning: very AU, violence, semi-graphic horror scenes, suicide, massive character death
1. Part I: Broken Bride

This will be a five chapter fic, four parts and an interlude between parts one and two. It's based off the Ludo EP, Broken Bride. I would encourage you to listen to the song corresponding to each chapter after reading the chapter.

Warning: This fic is very AU. It involves violence, semi-graphic horror scenes, suicide, and massive character death. I think a T rating would be safe.

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Broken Bride

Part 1: Broken Bride

I take a deep breath and lean back against the coffee table. I'm finally finished after fifteen years of a ghostlike existence. I've been sleeping less than four hours a night, especially since I've been close to finishing, and when I do sleep there are nightmares. I've been putting less effort into my job, which I know is bad for my patients but I haven't cared about any of that for quite awhile. For the past fifteen years, all I've cared about are my calculations, and I've wondered many times why I didn't become an engineer instead of a doctor because then things would be so much easier, though I have a feeling it wouldn't have really been easy either way.

But now I think I'm finished. I've checked my math again and again and I know I should check it one last time, but the prospect of getting to you that much sooner overpowers my instincts and climb inside my contraption, taking one last look at the apartment we shared. It's unrecognizable now. The furniture is covered with a thick layer of dust from lack of use and most of it is pushed against the wall to make room for my work. Hoping I never have to see the living room like this again I shut the latch and flip the circuits on.

The next thing I know the circuits are failing. I'm losing control of my machine. The cosmic strings are a thin as rubber bands and they snap. I'm falling through mist. I taste something metallic. I realize it's blood. I'm lying in mud. I roll over, wondering where I am, because this can't possibly be the year 2008. The first thing I notice is the trees. They must be a hundred feet tall. The second thing I notice is the air. It's thick and it's it hard to breath. I hear what sounds like a scream in the distance. I don't know what time I'm in, or if I'm even on the right planet for that matter, but I know that it's drastically wrong. I am clearly no where near where I want to be.

I remember the moment I found out you were the one that had been in the bus crash. I thought House was losing it at first. I thought it couldn't have possibly been you. You had been on call. But then I remember the messages I left you and that you hadn't called me back. You always had your cell phone on you and you always returned calls. I remember when we found you critically injured at Princeton General. I remember the moment you died in my arms. I would give anything to get you back.

A gust of wind from behind me knocks me out of my trance, but I don't think anything of it. I assume it's just the weather. I don't turn until I hear the screaming noise again, this time much closer. There's some sort of giant bird, with a wingspan of at least forty feet closing in on me. I run. I have no idea where I'm going, but getting lost is still better than getting eaten. I can try to find my machine later.

I find myself at a cliff face and I notice that a few yard away there's an opening that's big enough for me to fit into comfortably, but not big enough for the creature. I drop down on all fours and crawl through the gap, praying there is nothing already living there. The cave is big once I am inside. I can stand up now, and better yet I am not hopelessly lost. I can see the clearing where I left my machine from the opening. Unfortunately the bird has lands outside the cave and doesn't seem to be moving, but now that I get I closer look at it I discover that it is not a bird. It's a pterodactyl. Finally I know where I am, but I'm not happy about it. I've landed when dinosaurs still roamed the earth.


	2. Save Our City

Save Our City

Kutner sprints back through the doors of Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, brushing himself off as he goes. He is covered in ash, but it's difficult not to be when it's raining from the sky. The lobby is filled with chaos. Clinic patients are cowering in corners and under chairs. Taub and Thirteen are hurrying past, their arms loaded down with anything heavy enough to result in a fatal blow to the head or light enough to be lit on fire and launched into the mob. It is a valiant effort, but the mob is growing faster than they can kill them. It is a good thing Kutner watches so many horror movies. He is the only one who knows how to kill zombies. This is why he has been out in the parking lot on the front lines with Foreman. Foreman is a natural leader and Kutner knows what needs to be done, so they've made a good team leading the operations.

The electricity is out, so he trips over something heavy in the dark and falls to the ground. He realizes he is lying in a pool of something warm and dark. He turns to the thing that tripped him. It's a body. There are blue scrubs, a surgeon. The shaggy blond hair is matted with blood, but Kutner can see that he is staring into the still horror-filled face of Dr. Robert Chase, illuminated only by the moon, which has gone an eerie blood-red.

Kutner pulls himself up and continues into the stairwell. He passes Cameron between the fourth and fifth floors. By the red and puffy state of her eyes and the amount of blood on the white lab coat she's still wearing he can tell she already knows about Chase, but she's carrying books to light on fire and some metal stakes, which Kutner suspects have somehow been detached from the benches in the hallways. She is strong.

Kutner is running out of breath by time he reaches the roof, and there is Cuddy. She's staring out into what used to be her own neat and organized kingdom and what is now the site of a war between the alive and the undead. From the roof Kutner can see everything. He can see how close to the hospital the zombies are getting. They'll be in the lobby in a number of hours.

"They're getting close," Kutner says panting. "We'll need to come up with another plan." Cuddy nods without looking. She's standing on the ledge. Kutner imagines what the whole horrific scene must look like from the main road in the distance, the zombies and the doctors coming head to head and Cuddy up here above it all. He imagines it must look like she's in charge. That used to be the case, but now she's just as powerless as anyone.

"Did you notice how familiar they look?" Cuddy asks.

"What? The zombies?" Kutner asks raising his eyebrows. "I was a little busy fighting them."

"They were all patients," Cuddy continues.

"Patients that died?" Kutner replies. "You think they're coming for revenge?"

"Patients that lived," Cuddy answers. "They're all patients that House saved, every single one of them." They both stare out into the hundreds of zombies now approaching the hospital.

"How much do the patients know?" she asks.

"We kept it them oblivious as long as me could," Kutner answers. "But they started getting suspicious and looking out windows." She smiling weakly at his feeble attempt at a joke.

"How many doctors have we lost?" she asks hesitantly and Kutner can tell she's afraid of the answer. He doesn't blame her.

"At least twenty," he sighs. "At least one from ophthalmology, two from radiology, one from surgery—"

"Who?" she interrupts.

"Dr. Chase," Kutner hangs his head.

Cuddy sighs. "And Dr. Wilson?"

"He still hasn't shown up," he answers quietly.

"And House?" she continues.

"He haven't seen him either," Kutner replies.

"But everyone else—" Cuddy begins.

"Everyone else is accounted for," Kutner says quickly, glad to finally be able to offer a positive response. There was a pause.

"We need another plan," Kutner repeats.

"You already said that," Cuddy answers. "And I don't' know why you're telling me. You're the zombie expert."

"You're the Dean of Medicine," Kutner argues.

Cuddy rolls her eyes. "Like that makes a difference anymore," she says. "Foreman's in charge now. Trust him. Hopefully he'll get us out of this. If not, at least we'll go down fighting."

"What are you doing?" Kutner asks uneasily, because Cuddy is edging out onto the ledge more and more until her toes are off the end.

She looks back at him. "There's nothing more I can do," she says, and with that she steps off the ledge.

"No," Kutner cries as her flings himself forward, but she is long gone before he reaches the very spot where she stood only moments ago. She looks over the ledge and sees her sprawled across a single parking space, and what's worse, no one even noticed her falling, hitting the ground. No one noticed the sudden presences of a new body. Then, looking over the ledge, he notices something else. The zombies are approaching faster now, but only because the doctors are retreating. They're giving up. Kutner climbs up on the ledge, and for only a moment considers following Cuddy. Then he shakes his head and yells the only thing that he thinks might get everyone's attention.

"Free cheese puffs!" he cries at the top of his lungs, and like he suspected, all the doctors stop and gaze up in his direction, even if only for a moment, wondering who could possibly be giving away cheese puffs at a time like this. "There's a time to pray and there's a time to fight!" he calls. "Anything can be a weapon if you're holding it right! Defend what is yours! They will not take our souls! It's time now to rise and fight!"

Then he turns away and hurries back down the stairs. He needs to get back on the front lines with Foreman. He passes no one in the stairwell this time, but he thinks nothing of it. As he passes through the lobby he notices something: Chase's body is gone. As he crosses the parking lot he notices something else: so is Cuddy's.


	3. Part II: Tonight's the Night

Tonight's the Night

I pace the cave as the sun disappears under the treetops once again. I've been in this cave for three days, but the pterodactyl hasn't moved. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's waiting for me. These things are smarter than people give them credit for.

I just keep thinking about how when I came home the night you died I found a frozen pizza sitting on top of the stove cooked and ready to be eaten, a book propped open on the table next to a half empty cup of coffee, as if you were just in the other room. That's the only thing that's keeping me from just staying in this cave. The thought that if I go to pick up House in the bar instead, when I get home that pizza will be half way eaten, that cup of coffee will be empty and in the dishwasher, that book will be closed.

What I remember the most is that road trip we went on when we got completely lost in the bad part of town and you were too stubborn to stop and ask how to get back on the freeway. It was so annoying at the time but now I'd give anything to have you next to me insisting that you could figure out how to get there on your own. After I rescue you we'll go on another road trip.

Now I've decided I can't wait any longer. It's dark and I'm going to make a run for it. I can see the time machine from here. I don't know how good they're night vision is, but in the time it takes them to get up off the ground I could be halfway there. I would find something to camouflage myself but I doubt it will make a difference. I saw in a movie that dinosaurs' vision is based off movement. The only reason I'm making the run at night is because it makes me feel better. I regret that I didn't go through the typical obsessed-with-dinosaurs stage when I was little. I know that you did, but I can't ask you right now. When I see you I will, so I'll know for next time I'm here.

I take off my tie so it won't get caught on anything and keep me from running my fastest. I honestly don't' even know why I brought it. I think about taking off my shoes, but if I step on something and injure my foot it will slow me down, so I decide against it. I and get on all fours and crawl to the opening in the side of the cliff. Then I take a few deep breaths and make a run for it.


	4. Part III: The Lamb and the Dragon

Part III: The Lamb and the Dragon

Note to self: pterodactyls don't have night vision. Raptors do. I basically dive into my machine after nearly having my head torn of my a pack of velociraptors. The problem now is that fuel cells have drains far to fast. The time portal is already glowing. The machine has already started to travel through time and I now have no control over where I am going. I had already set the machine to travel forward, so at least I know that where I'm going there won't be dinosaurs, but that's little reassurance because the chances that you'll be there are miniscule.

I feel the pulling sensation that I assume is the machine being dragged through time. Then it stops. Cautiously I stick my head out of the machine just enough to see what is going on outside. The first thing I notice are the fires. Everything appears to be on fire. Then I notice the blood everywhere. I hope you aren't here. I hope you never had to see this.

I climb out of my machine. I can't see very well. The sun is out but it's not providing much light. I look around. I don't recognize anything. There are gapping holes in the ground where I can tell there used to be trees, and there are all kinds of bricks and twisted pieces of metal that I can tell haven't been there for long. There's some kind of precipitation falling from the sky but it's not water. I hold my hand out to catch some and then eye it closely and realize that it is blood. Now I know why I don't see anyone. If I had a choice I wouldn't be outside either.

Just then the ground starts to move and a crack in the earth opens up several yards from where I am standing. Just as soon as it starts the shaking stops, but the crack remains. I have just survived an earthquake, but somehow that doesn't seem like such an accomplishment. As I survey the ruins and what used to woods I realize that I will find nothing if I go in that direction. I turn around with the intent of looking for shelter bit I don't have to look far. I am standing not far from Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Go figure.

I see a person emerge from a side door. I walk towards him only to realize that he is coming to me. As he gets closer I can see that it is Dr. Lawrence Kutner from House's team. As he approaches me he begins to speak but I can't hear him over the grumble of another tremor. All I notice is the blood spattering is clothes. He looks like he's murdered someone.

"I said, where have you been?" he calls, though he is right next to me.

"What's going on," change the subject, because even if I was prepared to tell him that I've been in prehistoric times I know he won't believe me.

He takes me down the path leading up to the back of the hospital. As we pass the fountain I see that the angel is no longer spitting a steady stream of water, but there is something dark in the pool in which he stands.

"Is that blood?" I ask.

"No, that was blood three days ago," Kutner answers as casually as if we were talking about a new nurse in oncology. "Now it's a scab."

As we near the hospital another figure emerges, Thirteen. She has a wide gash down her left cheek bone that looks like it's been there several days and looks infected, but I'm guessing it's the least of her problems.

"How's Taub?" Kutner asks quietly, like he's not sure whether or not he want's to know the answer.

"We just lost him," she says and he hangs his head.

"It's probably for the better," he finally says. "With is wife already gone, that amount of damage to his head, there must have been severe brain trauma, and no one wants to live in a world like this anyway." Thirteen nods solemnly.

I follow them through the doors. The hospital is dark. With the electricity out the hospital would only be illuminated by light from the sun, if there was any. So the large windows are doing little good.

"There were a lot of people here," Kutner tells me. "But a lot of them tried to leave to find family. Most of them didn't make it past the zombies."

"Zombies?" I repeat, sure he is kidding, though I don't know who would joke at a time like this.

"We managed to look them outside the gates," Thirteen explains. "But that's only a temporary solution. Sooner or later they'll get through. We maybe have another day if we're lucky." I'm not planning on still being in this time in another day.

"Anyway, that's how Taub got injured, and that how Foreman died," Kutner finishes. "Oh, but don't worry. We got him back," he adds upon seeing my horrified expression. "Though I'm not sure how exactly. His throat was cut."

"It's a good thing though," voice says, and I jump, only to realize that Foreman has come up behind me. "I'm the one calling the shots with Cuddy gone," his voice is raspy through his heavily bandaged throat. We're in the process of coming up with another plan for once they break through," he's talking more to Thirteen and Kutner now. His voice is coming out strong, despite the raspiness, but he's shaking so hard I'm surprised he can stand up.

There's a loud noises as a window is blown out. Shards of glass and bits of ruble come flying, knocking us over.

"They've broken through the gate," I hear Kutner call, but I don't hear anyone answer. I sit up and look around. Straight in front of me I see Kutner sitting up and doing the same. Around the lobby the clinic patients are recovering, but we were the closest to the blast. To my right I see Foreman. He is rolling around on the floor holding his neck. Blood is pooling around his head and left shoulder. Behind him Cameron hurries down the stairs to come to his aid. I hadn't seen Cameron yet. I am thankful that she wasn't in the lobby during the blast. Then I turn to my left. Thirteen is also lying in a pool of blood, this one near her hip. Kutner and I stand up.

"Are you okay?" I ask, because the right left of his jeans is blood soaked below the knee.

"I'll be fine," he answers. "Get those two." He glances at Foreman and Thirteen. I hurry over to Foreman, who already has Cameron kneeling over him.

"I can't see," he rasps. That doesn't surprise me. Most of his head, face, and neck is cut and covered in blood.

"Risk of infection…" Cameron is muttering. "…blindness is permanent."

Foreman's breathing is labored because the bandages have been ripped from his neck. "You cowards will see what power means," he chokes. "When the dragon comes his will be done. In the fires you'll be cleaned. Let him rise." Then he closes his eyes. Cameron and I look at each other and we both know he won't wake up. We also both know that we've been tricked. This dragon, and the zombies, Foreman has been on their side all along.

"We need to burn his body," Cameron says.

"Why?" I ask.

"We didn't burn Chase or Cuddy's and they both became zombies," she explains hoisting Foreman onto her shoulder. "I've got this. Go help with Thirteen." I glance over at Thirteen, who Kutner had rolled over on her back. I hurry over to him.

"Help me stop the bleeding," he says, glancing down at the shirt he has pressed to her side. He has only been holding it there for a minute but it is already impossible to tell that it used to be white.

"How much damage is there?" I ask, because I don't want to remove the t-shirt.

"Critical, but it's hard to tell exactly what was hit," Kutner replies.

"Are the O.R.s still sterile?" I ask.

"No one's been in them since they were cleaned up after they were last used," he answers.

"Get he to one," I say. "And if there's any kind of surgeon still here get him in there. I'm going to go see what's happening outside."

"Take something heavy with you," Kutner says, beckoning to a women in what looks like it used to be a nurse's uniform and motioning for a stretcher. "You have to hit them on the head to kill them."

I nod and get to my feet and begin to look for discarded weapons, but when I see what's outside the window I start to doubt that anything I might find on the floor of the lobby would be of any help. Sitting in the middle of the parking lot, standing the height of the hospital, is a large red dragon with the head of Dr. Gregory House.

"What are we going to do?" I hear from behind me. I turn to see Kutner and Cameron coming up behind me.

"I guess we know now why House never showed up," Kutner sighs. "I'm just glad Cuddy didn't have to see this." Just as he finishes the House dragon shrieks loudly and breaths flames onto the other half of the hospital. Within seconds it's burning to the ground.

"We're screwed," Cameron says, and I do a double-take because I would have never in a million years pictured her saying that, but I guess things change when half the people you know have died and you're facing what could very possible be the end of days.

Then my eyes fall on it, my machine, and I know that's the one thing that can save us. That means I would have to give up on saving you, but I have to do it. I can't just go and leave Cameron and Kutner and Thirteen here to face their deaths.

"Come on," I say and I make a run for it. I hope they're following me because I don't have time to check. I crouch behind my machine and they get down next to me.

"After I flip this switch we'll have a maximum of five second to hit that thing with this. Otherwise we'll get dragged back in time to who knows when," I explain quickly.

"What is this thing?" Cameron asks.

"Never mind," I say. "We get one chance."

"Is this a time machine?" Kutner asks in amazement.

"Help me lift it," I say, digging my fingers under it. Cameron gets to my left, Kutner to my right, and we manage to hoist it a few feet off the ground.

"We need to get closer," I say. "There's no way we can throw it that far."

"Are you kidding?" Cameron protests.

"Either we die by the dragon or we get sucked back in time and get attacked by raptors," I reply. "At least this way we have a chance to live." We move as quickly as we can, which is still pretty slow, towards the House dragon, who's busy enough burning down the hospital that he doesn't notice us.

"Okay, here's how it's going to work," I whisper, because we're right at the dragon's feet. " I'm going to count to three, flip the switch, and we're going to throw this thing and run to those cars over there without looking back, understand?" They nod and try to look calm, but I can tell they're both terrified. "One," I say. "Two. Three!" I flip the switch, which I can just barely reach with my right thumb, and we toss the machine with all our might. It must only go up about five feet, but is was enough. It hits the dragon's knee and we all three turn and run. Behind us I hear the explosion. Kutner is in the front, already ducking behind the car. Cameron and I are farther back, and we're not going to make it. I make the decision in a split second. I diving into Cameron knocking her to the ground. I grab her and roll us behind an overturned marble picnic table, which I hope is to heavy to be moved by the blast, because I don't think the three of is together could have gotten it back up.

Once the echo stops it is silent. Cameron and I are both afraid to breath, but after a minute we here Kutner calling for us. We stand up, thought our legs feel like gelatin, and we look around.

"No dragons," Kutner is smiling and coming towards us. "No zombies. It worked…Why aren't you happy?" Cameron turns to me and they both stare. They are both beaming.

"What's wrong?" Cameron asks, concern evident in her eyes. I shake my head. "Come on," Cameron prods. "You saved my life. You saved everyone's life. What can I do?"

"It's just, I built that machine to go back in time to May 17, 2008, right before she left to go pick up Amber left to go pick up House, and save her," I explain. "And I know now that I won't be able to, but I just wish that I could tell her goodbye."

Cameron smiles serenely. "It's done," she says, and suddenly I can't see her and Kutner anymore. I'm spinning very fast in pitch darkness, and then I'm outside our apartment building. It's a breezy and warm outside, though it's already dark. I look up to our living room window, and through the blinds I see a shadow. There you are.


	5. Part IV: Morning In May

I'm sooo sorry it took me this long to get this chapter up. I thought I'd already done it weeks ago, but apparently not.

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Part IV: Morning In May

I make my way up to our apartment. Your shoes are right behind the door, so they slide and hit the wall when I open it. It always annoyed me that you left them there, but I never said anything. I can hear the microwave in the kitchen heating up the pizza you left, but that's not were I go. As I near the bedroom I hear you sneeze. I can see the dresser on the opposite side of the bedroom as the door. There's a sock hanging out of one of the drawers. It's the same one that you compulsively put back each time you leave the apartment but always seems to find its way back out again. I wish you would have left it out. I've missed that sock. I inch closer to the door and there you are sitting on the bed. You look up at me and smile.

I enter the room and climb up on the bed next to you. I smell the scent of your shampoo. I haven't smelled those strawberries since that day. You left a half full bottle in the shower, but I couldn't bring myself to touch it. I put my arm around your shoulders and squeeze you, just to make sure I'm not dreaming, because this is definitely too good to be true.

I remember right after you died. Everyone did their best, I'm sure. Cuddy gave me months off, more than the traditional eight weeks. Cameron kept calling me to talk about it. All I ever really needed was to talk to you one more time and to actually hear you answer. I spent years trying to achieve that, smelling your side of the closet because the scent was still on your clothes, until it wore off, that is, and looking at pictures, even though you never look like you in pictures, well you do, but it's was the you everyone else saw, not me, and they all look like they are from a different lifetime anyway. Right now I don't care about any of those. You're sitting next to me. I can hear you breathing, see your chest rising and falling.

"Back so soon?" you ask.

"I never left at all," I answer, smiling. We sit there for a moment in silence. I don't need to talk. You're very presence is more than I've had in years. Then the phone rings.

"I'll get it," you sigh, rolling off the bed. "Hello?" you say into the phone. You listen for a minute, then you hang up. "That was House," you say. "He needs to be picked up from a bar. They took his keys." I start to get up. "No," you say. "You need to get to work. I'll go pick him up." I nod, because I know that I won't be able to save you now. I know for sure, because trust me, if there was a chance in a million I would give it a shot. You hurry past me, grabbing your keys off the dresser on the way out. I second later I here the door slam shut, and you're gone, just out of my reach, again. That's when I make a decision, perhaps the hardest, and the easiest, decision I've ever had to make. I grab my keys, leaving my drivers' license on purpose, and I'm out the door behind you.

As I drive along the street where the bus crashed I look carefully for the parking space where the SUV it hit when it was spinning out of control was parked, praying it's not parked there yet. I stop when I realize it's not, and I wonder if I really want to do this. It doesn't take me long to realize that I do. I pull into the space and wait for your bus.

I am taken to Princeton General. I don't really know any of this. I'm unconscious, bleeding internally. We don't know it, but we are only on opposite sides of the curtain from each other, Jane and John Doe. And when House finds you, he finds me. They won't let him transfer us because he isn't the attending and he isn't family, and while Cuddy is trying to pull strings to get us transferred to Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital on the grounds that we are employed there, your heart stops and they are unable to resuscitate you. Your heart is dead from the amantadine. A minute and thirty seconds later my heart stops too. We are declared dead with two minutes, and with five feet, of each other.

_Hold on. Baby, we're almost home. _


End file.
